Defoe’s hot start says more about Seattle and Toronto than MLS

Within 16 minutes of Toronto’s season opener in Seattle, Jermain Defoe had made an impact. Eight minutes later, that impact became a major one. With two goals in his first 24 MLS minutes, the England international paved his new team’s path to a 2-1 victory. In the process, he gave MLS skeptics enough fuel to spam timelines. If Defoe had this kind of impact in his first half-hour, what does that say about MLS?

Given what we’ve learned from the transitions Tim Cahill, Marco Di Vaio, Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane made to Major League Soccer, Defoe’s hot start tells us almost nothing new about the league in general. At this point, we know what to expect when somebody of Defoe’s stature moves to North America. As many predicted before the season started, Defoe will be one of the league’s better players — something that will surprise no one.

Defoe’s performance did, however, help us learn something about Tim Leiweke’s credibility play in Toronto. With Defoe providing the payoff to the Reds’ much-improved play, Toronto may be ready to live up to the potential ascribed to them this offseason. Whether it be Jonathan Osorio’s creativity on the first goal, Doniel Henry’s play in central defense, or Álvaro Rey’s occasional threat from wide, Toronto was more than a few huge paychecks injected into an irrelevant squad. Saturday showed Ryan Nelsen has enough pieces to engineer the franchise’s first playoff run.

We also learned more about the Sounders; specifically, about two of their high profile offseason imports. On Toronto’s first goal, Chad Marshall drifted into midfield, exposing the space Defoe used for the opening goal. The relationship between him and right back DeAndre Yedlin has to improve. Then, an under-hit back pass from Marco Pappa allowed Defoe to put the Sounders down two. On a day where Toronto’s winter additions paid off, Seattle’s gave away two goals.

Not that there weren’t positives in game two of the great Seattle rebuild. In the second half, Obafemi Martins had one of his best 45-minute stretches as a Sounder, including a run that helped create Clint Dempsey’s second Seattle goal. On the counter, the US captain was at his opportunistic best, finishing from just inside the area for the first MLS goal scored on Júlio César:

Will Bruin: the next big thing? (remember the last big things…?)

Last season LA Galaxy opened their defense of their title with a 4-0 win over Chicago Fire, in a game marked chiefly by Mike Magee scoring a hat trick. Magee, who until then had tended to revel in a Mr November role as a playoff specialist, raised some eyebrows with the goalscoring pace he started the league campaign with, though there were few who thought this would signify more than the Galaxy man perhaps challenging his own previous best goal tally. Magee kept scoring though, and the rest was a move to Chicago, MVP form and a return to the national team set up.

This year, the first player to catch the eye from the start is Houston’s Will Bruin. Bruin wasted no time in scoring early in the 4-0 rout of New England last week, and after notching another in that game came into this week’s game against Montreal full of confidence. Well-placed confidence it turned out, as Bruin hit another winner again this week. It needed a kindly deflection, but when you’re in form those tend to be the bounces that go your way.

Despite his talents, not many would have figured Bruin as the most likely to make a hot start in the league. Last season threatened to fizzle out in an angst-ridden finale for the forward after a lack of goals in the regular season had seen him fail to build momentum from 2012’s promise. Yes, Bruin did go on to score twice against Saturday’s opponents during their Eastern Conference wild card game last year, and indeed stands behind only Brian Ching as an all-time playoff goalscorer for the Dynamo, but like Magee, there was perhaps little expectation that playoff form (brief as it turned out to be in Bruin’s case, anyway) would translate into regular season.

Whether it continues, who knows, though the Dynamo had a pleasing balance in dealing with an entertaining ebb and flow of the game against the Impact, and the sense that Bruin will get more goal opportunities, particularly from the supply down the left of Brad Davis’s crosses, and Giles Barnes’ runs down that channel, seems fairly palpable.

The Dynamo might want to be careful what they wish for in hoping Bruin has a Magee-style year. Magee did not even suit up for the Fire at the weekend, with reports out of Chicago suggesting that there’s something of an impasse on a DP level salary hike for the forward, who can reasonably expect one after dragging the team to best-in-table form with him in the side last year. With 2013 MLS defender of the year Jose Goncalves in a similar position at New England, and also omitted from the 18, becoming the next thing is clearly something of a double-edged sword. GP

Just change their name to “Goonies” already

If Mark Watson does nothing more than make the Earthquakes believe a repeat of 2012 is possible, his retention as head coach will be worth it. After replacing Frank Yallop last season, Watson seemed to do just that, taking the Earthquakes to the brink of the postseason. Though they came up just short, October showed us glimpses of the team that claimed 2012’s Supporters’ Shield. Going into this season, the question was whether that team would show up, or were San Jose really the older, more fragile crew that started the 2013 campaign?

For one night in Santa Clara, 2012 was back, complete with its Chris Wondolowski goals, inconsistent defending, and (most importantly) inexplicable late comebacks. Having fallen behind 3-1 to Real Salt Lake, the “Goonies” got two goals in the final 20 minutes at Buck Shaw, with Victor Bernardez’s second goal of the night stealing a point in the 95th minute.

That it was the Honduran defender who played hero may have been the most surprising part. As remarkable, inexplicable, even obnoxious that San Jose’s “never say die” performances can be, we’re used to players like Wondolowski being the hero. His 80th career goal started Saturday’s scoring, but he wasn’t involved at the end. Nor were Steven Lenhart or Alan Gordon - the others usually swiping points for the Earthquakes. Instead it was Bernardez, parting the goalmouth chaos from seven yards out, who turned back the clock on Saturday night:

Coming off a season where he was unable to compete for another Defender of the Year award, Bernardez may be looking to turn back his own clock. In-and-out of the team while helping Honduras qualify for Brazil, Bernardez also switched defense partners midseason. When he was available, the defense played well, with the team allowing only 0.7 goals per game when Bernardez started with Clarence Goodson. But as Steven Beitashour and Justin Morrow missed time, the defense couldn’t offset the attack’s huge drop in production.

In that sense, the three goals allowed might be a warning sign – a logical one, albeit one that is being overshadowed by Bernardez’s heroics. But in a world where reason gets thrown out the window every time San Jose take a deficit into the final 15 minutes, there’s no point in resorting to logic. If Bernardez and the Earthquakes re-find their 2012 selves, there’ll be more nights like Saturday’s in Santa Clara. RF

Rapids glad to see back of the off-season

It’s taken them 7 hours and 27 minutes of playing time to get it, and it came via one of the more dubious penalties you’ll see all year, but the Colorado Rapids have scored a road goal.

That might not seem much to celebrate — though the point on the road that the goal earned, against last season’s Shield-winning New York Red Bulls, is no small matter — but after an off-season of deep uncertainty, any suggestion that the Rapids have moved on from that has to be seen as extremely welcome for their fans.

There should have been a different set of expectations coming into this year. Last season, Oscar Pareja’s blend of technical soccer, enacted by an intriguing blend of experience and well-drilled young talent, saw the Rapids into an unexpected playoff spot. Their season had fallen off a little by the end, though compared to what happened in Montreal and Seattle it was hardly a collapse, and even though Seattle beat the Rapids in the wild card playoff game, the general trajectory of Pareja’s young side seemed to be on the up. Dillon Powers and Deshorn Brown in particular, looked set to go from strength to strength in their sophomore year, and generally it seemed as if the Rapids might be about to reap the benefit of Pareja’s root-and-branch reform of Gary Smith’s more physical MLS Cup winners.

Then Pareja walked to Dallas, taking holding midfielder Hendry Thomas with him, and the Rapids were left stunned. Senior officials claimed to have no idea Pareja was likely to walk out on the project at this stage, and after a series of temporary measures while they regrouped, it was only on the eve of First Kick that they finally removed the interim tag from Pablo Mastroeni, and gave the crowd favorite control of the team.

It still left the question of how quickly Mastroeni could pull his team together, and the evidence against New York suggested that it was pretty quickly. Despite having to give a debut to their third choice keeper John Berner, the Rapids held up well against a rather one-dimensional Red Bulls attack, which surprisingly saw Eric Alexander and Johnny Steele on the bench to start the game. Berner did concede his first MLS goal to no less a player than Thierry Henry, but much of the action was at the other end, with the Rapids outshooting New York, and generally looking good value for their point.

Jamison Olave looked to be standing his ground in the box when Marvin Chavez collided with him and sprawled forward in the 72nd minute. The referee was convinced though and Vicente Sanchez stepped up to place the penalty into the corner.

Colorado deserved something from the match, and can hopefully draw a line now under an off-season that was as eventful, if not as eye-catching as those enjoyed/endured by Toronto and Chivas. For Mike Petke meanwhile, there’s work to be done if he wants to inspire another tifo, such as the one dominating the South Ward pre-game, honoring his Supporters’ Shield achievement. Not that his former Colorado Rapids room mate will care about Petke’s troubles. With plenty of challenges to face himself, Pablo Mastroeni is on the board, and the Rapids are finally on their way again. GP

Thierry Henry jumps the shark, and other video joys

Remember #Henrying? The lean-against-the-post goal celebration that briefly became an internet-meme costing the US economy many work hours of photoshop silliness last season? Well Henry clearly had too much time to think about how he might greet a goal in the off-season, as he celebrated his goal against Colorado by the rather more baroque method of leaping the ad barrier, pushing a cameraman out of the way and insisting on taking over the camera.

This is what he saw. This may be as close as we ever get to what’s going on in Henry’s head (notwithstanding this guess):

Not that that was the most memorable video this weekend. That honor probably has to go to Quakes’ Mark Watson, who indulged the San Jose TV crew with one of those “It’s the middle of the game — do you want to tell us your favorite color?” mini-interviews coaches are forced to do precisely in the hope they will coincide with moments like this:

Extra points for the deadpan delivery all round. Particularly as Joao Plata cavorts like a chicken. GP